"What is Life but a game of Cricket?"

If you are a Cricket Fan, the year 2019 is special for you solely for the fact, it’s the World Cup Year. For the first time in 20 years, the Cricket World Cup returns to England. With 10 teams and the fan favorite round robin format making a comeback, this World Cup promises to be an exciting affair.

A History & Guide to the Cricket World Cup chronicles the history of the cricket world cup right, from its modest beginning in 1975 to be one of the most watched cricket events. The book starts with a brief history of all the eleven tournaments so far (from 1975 to 2015). It traces the journey of all the major teams and the story of the knockout stages. It also includes records of matches and individual performances, as well as the Individual and team records for each world cup (highest and lowest totals, match totals, highest partnerships, top batting and bowling performances, and biggest and smallest victory margins.) It also includes some interesting trivia about each tournament. The book doesn’t provide scorecards or crucial plays of some iconic games, which would have been a nice touch.

The second section includes team wise stats till date (totals, biggest victories, partnerships, and position in each WC, etc). It also includes the ground wise records (grounds from the up-coming WC) and the players to watch out for. This book could have done well to include pictures of some memorable moments (not sure about the print version). There is also a quiz included in the end.

The story of each WC is narrated in an engaging manner, including the relevant statistics. The book is slightly heavy on stats but the miscellany section and the detailed stats are sure to delight cricket lovers.

Overall, A History & Guide to the Cricket World Cup is informative, factual and engaging. If you are a cricket fan, you will enjoy this one.

Many thanks to the publishers Pen & Sword and White Owl, the author Andrew Roberts and NetGalley for the ARC

This book is pretty much only for those who are cricket obsessed and also obsessed with statistics and doesn't really lend itself well to the casual sports or cricket fan. The book starts with a breakdown of each of the matches which will be contested at the upcoming World Cup and each countries record against their opposition. The main thrust of the book is a quick breakdown of each of the prior World Cups including all the countries represented and their performance as well as a quick summary of the finals. The final part of the book is pure statistics including each countries record against each other, the statistics for each ground used at World Cups and records of the World Cup.